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I still have a few 2013 releases to catch up with, and I though I wanted to make my Oscar nominations predictions post having seen all of them, the nods are due early tomorrow morning so I’ll have to post them now.

A lot has already been said about Silver Linings Playbook after it surprised virtually everyone when it won the People’s Choice Award at this year’s TIFF over Argo. It’s been said that it’s now one of the five front-runners to win the Best Picture Oscar, that Jennifer Lawrence is the front-runner to win Best Actress, that Bradley Cooper gives the best performance of his career, that Robert De Niro gives the best one he’s given in over a decade. All of that, by the way, is actually true. This is a tremendously successful film that walks a tightrope that’s been walked on by more than a few films before it, but that walks it way better than them because of his cast and this exceedingly talented director.

I had heard some pretty awful things about House at the End of the Street, the latest generic horror movie offering out in theaters right now, and while it’s certainly far from being anything close to good, I kind of think it’s a slightly more competent feature than most people are making it out to be. Again, this is not to say it’s a good film, it really isn’t, but the sheer fact that the mandatory hot girl running around in a tank top screaming her ass off in this one is Jennifer Lawrence already makes it a better film than most of its horrid contemporaries.

Elizabeth Olsen broke out big last year, with a seriously mesmerizing performance in Martha Marcy May Marlene, which I ranked as my second favorite performance by an actress in a leading role of 2011. She’s destined for great things, you just know that from watching that performance, but before we get a look at Ms. Olsen (insert here the obligatory mention that she’s the younger sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley) in the roles her breakthrough performance brought her, we get to watch her in a film she took on before she got all the great notices. And that film is Silent House, Chris Kentis and Laura Lau‘s remake of the 2010 Uruguayan film The Silent House.

By now you have no doubt heard a whole lot about The Hunger Games. You have heard how the trilogy of young adult novels it’s based on is so insanely popular. You heard about the exhaustive search by the studio for the right actress to play the lead role of Katniss. You heard about Jennifer Lawrence, coming off an Oscar nomination for her work in the masterful Winter’s Bone, snatching the coveted, star-making role. You heard about the casting of the rest of the roles, which were filled with truly terrific actors. You heard about Steven Soderbergh coming in as second unit director, about the great buzz, the spectacular early ticket sales. And of course you heard about the box office; this one had the third-highest opening weekend, and in the ten days it’s been in theaters it’s already surpassed the $250 million mark Stateside and the $360 million mark at the global box office. By which I mean, The Hunger Games is a true phenomenon.

Les Misérables is a bit too over-the-top and pompous, but it’s still seriously well-made, with a passion and energy that translates to the performances (with one critical omission) even if it doesn’t always do the same with the vocals. Read my review for it here.

Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow’s follow-up to The Hurt Locker is an undeniable masterpiece, a film that’s both disturbing and 100% necessary, the most vital film about post-9/11 America. Read my review for it here.